


Because you listen

by dreamerbydawn



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: But he can be a bit thick, Fluff, M/M, Mickey is a sweetheart, Talkative Ian, [Spring break draft clean up]
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 21:32:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3665868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerbydawn/pseuds/dreamerbydawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian Gallagher is not a silent person. He talks all the time and about everything under the sun. Except, the chatter seems to be reserved specifically for Mickey. </p>
<p> Now Mickey has to get to the bottom of this and figure out why. It's essential alright?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Because you listen

“Do none of you Gallaghers ever shut the fuck up?” Mickey groaned, making Debbie grin unabashedly. 

“You live with the most silent one Mickey” She pointed out.

“Who Ian? He’s the fucking silent one?” Mickey demanded, snorting at the hilarity of the mere idea. 

“Yeah. He’s always been kinda private” Debbie shrugged, now making Mickey really pay attention. 

“You shitting me right now?” He asked, but she just rolled her eyes. 

“You ever seen Ian talk about his day?” She questioned and Mickey wanted to nod.

Every day, every single fucking day Ian talked about well...everything. He was always excited, always yapping away about even the smallest most random things. 

“Hey, it’s just the way Ian is. He’s an awesome listener but doesn’t really chat much.” The younger girl admitted. “Right Fiona?” 

“You don’t ever know what’s going on with him” Fiona agreed with her sister, before continuing on with where she was working through bills and whatever. 

Now Mickey gaped. Ian was the most predictable, and the only reason for that was because Mickey always, constantly knew what was going on with him, the redhead never missed a chance to tell him. 

“You don’t?” Mickey asked, frowning. 

“Lip sometimes wheedles things out of him if he tries really hard and Carl follows him around sometime, but otherwise, Ian keeps his stuff to himself” Debbie answered, extremely accepting of the fact. 

Mickey however couldn’t. A strong part of him suspected they were yanking his chain - with remarkably straight faces, but still, it was the only possibility. 

And so he began watching his boyfriend around his family.

It was going to be a one time thing, just to ensure himself that Ian did talk everyone’s ear off and the other two were being sarcastic maybe. 

But to his surprise, Ian didn’t. When Carl dropped by wanting to learn some technique or other from his brother, the younger boy talked about his school, some punk kid he beat up, a crush he had, his plans with little hank, everything really, but Ian mostly just contributed to the conversation where necessary and then left it at that. 

When that happened with Debbie again, the girl talking Ian’s ear off and him not sharing much in return, he figured it was because they were kids and Ian couldn’t exactly talk to his younger siblings. 

But it happened again, with Fiona, who bitched about work and then talked about Vee and then just discussed the workings of the Gallagher house, while Ian listened and agreed and even teased, but never brought up a topic of his own. 

The final draw was when he noticed the redhead with Mandy, again listening to her babble on about every detail and laughing with her or arguing over a random movie, but that was the extent of it. 

And after two weeks of it, Mickey was confused as fuck. Ian still came back to him, yapping away the second they were within hearing distance of each other and it pissed Mickey off. 

Ian didn’t have to pretend to be chatty simply because Mickey was silent. What did the redhead think would happen anyway? That they would both sit in silence and it would get awkward? 

Well, maybe it would, but at least Ian wouldn’t be going out of his way to randomly talk about shit just for Mickey’s sake. He didn’t want to be the reason Gallagher changed some part of himself. That just wasn’t how this shit worked. 

“Shut the fuck up” Mickey snapped with irritation, making Ian pause mid sentence and stare at him. 

“What happened?” Ian frowned, looking innocently at him. 

“Need you to stop yapping.” He growled back, and there was a flicker of hurt in green eyes, before Ian nodded and turned his attention back to his food. 

The silence between them lasted the night, Ian having spent half the time watching some movie with Mandy and returning to bed pretty late. Mickey had been asleep, but the shifting woke him up and he had kissed Ian, who seemed to melt against him, before they fell asleep wrapped in each other. 

Next morning however, the minute Mickey returned Ian’s smile, the chatter was back. It was as pointless as ever of course, and Mickey found himself gritting his teeth at the younger boy’s retelling of last night’s movie with Mandy. 

“I’ve seen the fucking movie Gallagher” Mickey dismissed and that seemed to surprise Ian, before he fell silent. 

Then breakfast happened, Mandy using up full lung capacity at Ian, while the redhead smiled and listened and remained his usual self. 

They went their respective ways once the eggs and toast were gobbled up, and by the time they got back in bed, they had little energy left for anything that wasn’t sex and cuddling. 

Bright and early next morning though, Ian started up again, talking about some customer he had noticed at the bar. 

“The fuck do I need to know that for?” Mickey grumbled, again shocking Ian into silence. 

“Guess you don’t” Came the answer and yeah, Mickey definitely didn’t.

He didn’t need Ian to think he needed to report every detail of his life. Mickey was fine without knowing them. He trusted his boyfriend at the club anyway. 

Ian had stayed silent most of the day, not offering Mickey more than a word or two, even then nothing beyond what was absolutely necessary. And Mickey was more than alright with that. Talkative or not, it was still Ian. 

Still, two days later, Ian was back to his mile a minute verbose self. And it was pissing Mickey off. He thought Ian had gotten the point already, he didn’t need to fucking compensate or pretend or whatever the fuck he was doing for Mickey’s sake. 

“Can we fucking act like two adults who can deal with some fucking silence for once in our goddamn life?” Mickey found himself bitching at his boyfriend, who was now definitely slack jawed. 

“You want me to shut up again” Ian said, voice showing no inflection whatsoever. 

“Jesus fuck, yes. No one says you gotta talk all the damn time” Mickey clarified, this time earning a small nod. 

“Okay” Ian shrugged, before simply leaving the room. 

This time though, it lasted a whole week. Ian’s silence was ringing in Mickey’s ears, but he refused to complain. This was Ian as he normally was, not the chatty cathy Mickey was used to. This was Ian’s comfort zone and he was just going to have to get used to it. 

After a week though, Ian stormed up to him right before they went to bed, standing at the edge with his arms crossed and glaring. 

“Are you going to fucking apologise or are we going to keep this up?” he demanded. 

“Apologise? The fuck for?” Mickey asked, entirely surprised. 

“Oh I don’t know. For fucking shutting me up every time I try to talk to you?” Ian asked, eyebrow raised and an unimpressed set to his face. 

“What do you even do that for?” Mickey snapped, his own irritation coming up along with the topic. 

“You don’t like me talking to you?” Ian asked, blinking with surprise. 

“Does it even fucking matter what I like?” Mickey grumbled making Ian’s stance drop. 

Where he had previously looked ready to kick some serious ass, he now resembled a puppy that had been on the receiving end of too many kicks. 

“You - you really want me to shut up Mick?” Ian asked, voice shaky and green eyes a little glazed. 

“What? damn it, why are you - shit man c’mere” Mickey yanks Ian by his wrist and on to their bed, where the taller boy buried himself into Mickey’s chest. 

“I want you to be you firecrotch. You don’t gotta talk to me just cuz you feel like you got to alright? If you’re a private fucking person, then I can be fine with that” Mickey consoled. 

“What are you talking about?” Ian frowned, drawing back from Mickey’s grip to meet his gaze. 

“I do notice shit Gallagher. Your sister was fucking right. You talk about fuck all when you’re with people and if you’re not really the kinda guy that shares every fucking detail of his life with someone, that’s fine man. I don’t care. Don’t know why you thought I would anyway” Mickey shrugged, answering honestly for once, while Ian stared at him dumbstruck. 

“Wait, my sister? Really Mickey what the fuck are you talking about?” Ian questioned, brows furrowed and meeting in the middle.

“You fucking spit out the most random crap all the fucking time of the day and you tell me every damn thing that happened to you since you woke up. You’ve been that way since we started to hook up” Mickey pointed out

“I uh guess I do, what’s that got to -?” Ian began when Mickey interrupted with a stubborn shake of his head.

“Yeah, so I always figured that was just you man. But you don’t usually fucking talk so much do you? Debbie mentioned you keep things to yourself and I thought it was bullshit at first but she was fucking right. You just listen and whatever, and this whole talking thing, you only do it with me. I don’t need you fucking changing yourself or some shit for me” He said as firmly as he could, before observing how Ian was taking it. 

The younger boy was smiling softly, his expression fond as he reached out for Mickey’s hand and tucked his fingers into the spaces between Mickey’s. 

“You wanna know why I talk to you Mick?” Ian asked softly, making the shorter boy shrug. 

“Why do you talk to me Gallagher?” He questioned with the air of an indulging parent talking to their five year old. 

“Cuz you are the only one that listens” Ian replied, smile stretching slightly. 

“What?” Mickey asked, eyes widening. 

“Right from the start Mick, you are the only one that paid attention. You actually listened to the shit I said, even if you pretended not to. You never thought it was unimportant or should wait for another time. You gave a shit about me Mickey, no one else ever has” Ian answered, eyes lowered and avoiding his boyfriend’s gaze. 

“The fuck do you mean? Your family -” Mickey began when Ian looked up with a rueful smile. 

“Likes to talk at me. Fiona needs someone to hear her out and Lip’s never been the patient one to sit down, so it was me. And Lip needs to vent his mad genius to someone and well we kind of were best friends. Debbie and Carl just found it easy to talk to me as well I guess. I dunno. People are used to me listening and when they finish their point, they usually leave. After a while, I just - stopped trying to talk to them I guess. I never knew they thought I was a private person though” Ian shrugged. 

“What about Mandy?” Mickey frowned. 

“I talk to her when something important comes up, but otherwise she just needs someone to talk about her day to” He answered

“So when you actually talk to me...” Mickey trailed off. 

“It’s cuz for the first time I think someone actually gives a damn about me” Ian assured, smiling at his boyfriend again. 

“Course I give a damn dumbass” Mickey promised, reeling Ian back in against his chest. 

Suddenly, all of Ian’s nonsense seemed like an important part of his daily life. And yeah okay, he had fucking hated Ian not talking about random shit all the time. He could admit that now.

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't remember writing this, but it seemed okay enough to post it anyway. Let me know what your thoughts?


End file.
